by Kylie Chan
‘Human as opposed to what?’ the woman said. She pressed against the bars, her eyes wide with hope, then jerked away from the cold metal.
Number Three checked the humans in the first cage. They hadn’t moved. She went to the trembling woman. ‘Hold your hand out.’
The woman retreated from the bars, obviously frightened.
‘I need to know that you’re not the same thing as the creatures holding you so we can take you out safely,’ Number Three said.
‘Whatever you have to do. Just get us out of here. Please.’ The woman visibly rallied, stepped back up to the bars again and stuck her left hand between them.
‘Courage,’ John said.
‘Raw,’ the Tiger said. ‘I’m in love already.’
Number Three took the woman’s hand and concentrated. ‘I’m nearly completely sure that these are human.’
She released the woman’s hand, and the woman drew it back through the bars and stared at it, then at Three. ‘What are you?’
‘A leopard,’ Number Three said.
She moved to the door of the cage and held her hand over the lock to break it. She opened the door and watched the humans inside. The woman remained near the bars, waiting, but the rest of the captives scrambled to the back of the cage. Number Three beckoned the woman closer, and she approached to stand in front of Three.
‘You said you’re the police and you’d let us out,’ the woman said.
‘She’s not attacking.’ Number Three raised her voice. ‘Take these humans out, find something warm to wrap them in, and call for transport.’
‘Be careful,’ the woman said. She pointed towards the rear of the basement. ‘There’s another room through there, with … things inside.’ She shuddered. ‘Horrible things.’
Number Three glanced at the door at the end of the room. ‘I don’t think anything could possibly be more horrible than this.’
She stepped away from the cage door and the woman ran out of her cell to another cell door, where she stood fidgeting, touching the bars and then flinching away from the cold. The minute one of Number Three’s squad had the door open, the woman raced inside and threw herself into another woman’s arms. They held each other, weeping with joy.
‘Two and Five with me,’ Number Three said. ‘Watch my back.’ She went to the door at the far end of the basement. It was made of solid steel. ‘What needs a door like this to hold it in?’
She held her hands out over the steel and it melted. There were three large Western demons behind it, standing motionless against the back wall of a simple brick room. They were in True Form, three metres tall and all completely covered in black shiny skin.
‘Shit,’ John and Emma said together.
Number Three hesitated in the doorway and the demons came to life. They were so big that all three couldn’t come at her at once, but she didn’t wait for them. She closed with the nearest and swung her sword at its neck. The sword glanced off. The camera spun then lurched as the demon swiped her sideways into the wall, and she grunted with pain.
She pulled herself together and looked around. One of the other demons had grabbed a member of her squad and broken his screaming body in half, then thrown the sobbing remains onto the floor. Three raised her hands, full of shen energy, and launched it at the demon approaching her; but it did nothing. One of her squad tried to take the demon’s head off from behind but again the blow was ineffectual. The demon turned and casually swiped the soldier sideways. The soldier’s head hit the wall with a crack and she slid down, unconscious or dead.
‘Dear god,’ Number Three said as screams rose from the room outside. One of the demons had attacked the caged humans.
‘Fall back! I’m yanging the bastards!’ she shouted, and the screen blanked to white.
When the picture returned, Three was in the cage room and a black demon held one of the captive humans — the brave woman — dangling limply from its right claw.
There was the sound of gunshots and the pinging of ricochets.
‘Hold your fire, you idiot!’ Number Three shouted.
‘I saw what you did to my brothers,’ the demon said. ‘Release me and I won’t harm the humans.’
Number Three hesitated. ‘If I yang it, the human will die too,’ she whispered. She raised her voice. ‘Release the human and go, and we won’t follow you.’
‘Your word, woman,’ the demon said.
‘You have my word,’ she said with defeat.
The demon dropped the woman and she crumpled onto the concrete floor. It turned, its massive black shoulders and back shining under the harsh electric bulbs of the cellar, walked past Number Three’s white-faced companions and jumped up through the hole into the house above.
‘Hold,’ Number Three said, and her squad stood alert and silently waiting among the gently sobbing captives.
‘I don’t know what else I could have done,’ Number Three said. She raised her voice. ‘Clear. Let’s take these people out.’
She went to the woman who was unconscious on the floor and put her hand on the side of her throat. ‘She’s alive.’ Her hands moved over the woman’s pale waxy skin and she shifted her into a recovery position.
‘The bus is here, ma’am,’ one of the soldiers said.
‘Shit!’ Number Three ran to the hole, jumped through it and raced out of the front door of the villa into the snow-covered open area that passed for a yard. An ancient European bus stood there, its engine throbbing. Number Three leapt high into the air and the camera swept over the area. She landed, rolled and righted herself, then quickly checked the driver, inside the bus and the luggage compartment. She stood completely still for a long moment.
When she spoke, her voice was full of relief. ‘It’s really gone. The yang must have seriously spooked it.’
The video flickered and restarted from the beginning. The Tiger hit the pause button and the three of them sat silently.
‘What did you do with the humans?’ Emma said.
‘They were too damaged to take to the Celestial Plane. I have them in one of my places in Mongolia. It’s not luxurious, but for them it’s like heaven to be warm and fed and safe.’ He rubbed his chin. ‘Never seen a bunch of humans so fucking broken in my entire life. They’d only been there for six months, but they’re worse than any of the refugees you’ll see coming out of the war zones. Most of them will never recover.’
‘What about that brave woman?’
‘Major internal injuries. We made it to medical help just in time. It will take her a very long time to recover from this, and I am marrying that woman as soon as she’s well enough.’
‘Don’t you dare,’ Emma said, stabbing her index finger at him. ‘She deserves way better than being one of a hundred.’
‘But I can give her a life on the Celestial Plane better than anything —’
She cut him off. ‘She deserves a man who will give himself to her a hundred per cent. Not servants, not staff, but him.’
He hesitated for a moment, then smiled slightly.
‘And besides, that may have been her partner she was hugging,’ Emma said.
‘Sister,’ the Tiger said. When Emma opened her mouth to yell at him again he raised his hands. ‘No, you’re right, paws off. I’ll just make sure that she’s damn well cared for.’
‘Good.’
‘Are the humans providing you with any useful information?’ John said, glancing back at the screen.
‘They don’t know anything,’ the Tiger said. ‘They have no idea what those black demons were. I’d love to know where they came from. I’ve never seen anything like them before.’
‘Dammit, Bai Hu!’ Emma said, exasperated. ‘I wish you’d read the reports I send you.’
‘Why? You’ve seen this before?’
She gestured towards the screen. ‘That’s what happened to me when they injected me with demon essence and it hit the AIDS in my blood. Shiny black skin that was as hard as glass and impenetrable as steel. The only thing that dest
royed it was John’s blood.’
The Tiger glanced at John. John shrugged; he didn’t know what he could cure with his blood until it happened.
‘The Demon Kings were holding a small group of AIDS patients in the Glass Citadel in the Western Heavens,’ Emma said. ‘They obviously used them to make armoured demons. We were hoping the process wouldn’t work.’
‘How many of these impervious demons do you think they made?’ the Tiger said. ‘Only a very few of us have access to yang, and if there’s more than a dozen of them we’ll be in trouble.’
‘Only three of us in the North have access to yin. The Dragon won’t let his people touch it so he’s the only one in the East,’ John said. ‘I haven’t talked to the Phoenix about it lately, but last I heard she had three people, including herself, that could yang.’
‘So that’s … around ten altogether with access to the basic forces,’ Emma said. ‘Damn.’
‘Did your people track down the Western King?’ John asked the Tiger.
‘As I said, I have three good people working on it. The network is huge, and they move quickly and silently. Every time I hit a location it drives them further underground. Should I stop harassing them and wait for them to move instead?’
‘No,’ John said. ‘Continue to annoy them; it will keep them weak and preoccupied. You might find their centre of operations if you persevere.’
‘I agree with your wise advice.’ The Tiger folded up the tablet. ‘That’s all I have right now.’
‘Try to capture one of those armoured demons so we can see what their weaknesses are,’ Emma said. ‘If they have an army of them, we’re in serious trouble.’
‘I doubt we can,’ the Tiger said. ‘They’re completely indestructible, and if they hold humans hostage we can’t even yang them.’
‘We need to know if anyone else’s blood destroys the armour,’ John said.
‘I’ll do my best,’ the Tiger said. ‘Oh.’ He raised his hand and a red envelope appeared in it. ‘For you guys.’ He handed it to John.
John opened it, and passed it to Emma. They were invited to Michael and Clarissa’s wedding, to be held in one month’s time at a Christian church in Hong Kong Mid-Levels.
‘Her family don’t know,’ the Tiger said. ‘Number One has asked me to keep them in the dark, and pretend that he and Clarissa are setting up house on the Earthly. They don’t want to worry her family.’
‘How is she?’ Emma said.
The Tiger frowned. ‘She spends most of her time in a wheelchair, but she’s having therapy. No chance of kids for a long time, if ever; her system is still heavily damaged.’ He ran his hand over his face and his voice filled with pain. ‘I would very much like to sink my claws into the Demon King and make him pay for what he’s done to this sweet and good-hearted young woman. My son is incredibly lucky to have her and I would love to see many grandchildren from them.’
‘Getting soft in your old age, Ah Bai?’ John said.
‘I dunno,’ the Tiger said, leaning his elbow on the desk. ‘After seeing that …’ He gestured towards the screen.
‘Never hurts to see some soft among the hard, yang and yin in balance,’ Emma said.
John and the Tiger both looked at Emma for a long moment, then nodded agreement. The wisdom of serpents was often as unexpected as it was welcome.
The Tiger picked up the tablet and rose. ‘I’ll keep you posted.’
‘Ah Bai,’ John said.
‘See you at the wedding,’ Emma said, and stood to show him out. ‘Are Leo and Martin invited?’
‘Leo’s best man,’ the Tiger said. ‘I’m looking forward to it. It will be a shaft of light and hope in the darkness that’s gathering around our dominions.’
‘Don’t worry,’ Emma said and gestured back towards John. ‘The darkness is on our side.’
‘That I am,’ John said, and closed the office door behind them.
2
Emma
I rapped on the door of Persimmon Tree Pavilion, then opened it to poke my head around. ‘Leo, I need to ask you about these students —’
I stopped. Leo and Martin weren’t aware that I’d opened the door. They weren’t even aware that I was there. They were on the couch in the living room, where they’d obviously been studying together; there were scrolls and brushes in a disarray on the floor. Martin was on top. Fortunately they hadn’t gone too far; they still had their pants on, but only just.
They were kissing with a passion that I’d thought only John and I could generate. Martin had his arms thrown around Leo’s neck. Leo was running his hands up and down Martin’s back and along his smooth curves. Leo’s hands went lower to slip inside Martin’s pants and pull Martin hard into him. Martin responded by groaning and thrusting into Leo.
I pulled my head out and shut the door.
There were a few thumps inside and the door was thrown open. It was Leo. Martin appeared behind him, his face expressionless. The three of us stood there without speaking for a long moment.
Then Leo said, ‘If it isn’t life or death, Emma, get lost,’ and slammed the door in my face.
‘Next time damn well lock your door!’ I shouted.
‘Immortals know not to barge in!’ he shouted back.
‘Well, I’m not Immortal,’ I grumbled as I stomped away.
I dropped the pretence of being irritated with them as I walked back to my office; it felt too good to have all the family finally together and in Heaven. I stopped and took a deep breath; the breeze was tinged with the warmth of spring, and the snow on the gardens was beginning to melt. The air of the Heavens was always clean and sweet, and as I walked along the path between the budding flowers I experienced a moment of true joy. We were all in Heaven together; we’d made it. Nothing would ever tear us apart.
I arrived at the barracks building, where some demons on ladders were hanging a brass calligraphy sign above the door. A delighted laughing group of students stood around watching them. John was under the sign at the front of the group, with his hands on his hips and a look of smug satisfaction. I took a short detour to see what the sign said, full of dread, and realised with dismay that I was right. It read Turtle’s Folly in John’s elegant flowing hand. Stone turtles stood on either side of the door to reinforce the point.
One of the students pointed at the sign. ‘Have you seen this, Lady Emma? How cool is this?’
‘That’s what the barracks down in Hong Kong were called,’ one of the seniors said.
John crossed his arms over his chest. ‘It is a fitting description for all of you.’
One of the Chinese students raised both his arms in triumph. ‘We are the Turtle’s Folly!’
‘Yes, we are!’ another student yelled, and they all cheered and clapped, whistling at the demons who were finishing the placement of the sign.
‘You are all completely insane,’ I said, and couldn’t hide my grin as I headed towards my office.
‘It was your idea to call it the Folly!’ John called after me, and the cheers and whistles increased.
I set the spreadsheet to print, and went out to Yi Hao’s desk to collect it from the printer in the office anteroom.
‘Needs more toner,’ I said.
‘Already?’ Yi Hao said. ‘I filled it up not long ago.’
‘Did Yi Hao just scold you?’ John said as he came in with Ronnie Wong.
‘I would never scold Miss Emma,’ Yi Hao said, indignant.
John and I shared a quick smile. Yi Hao didn’t know it, but John and I had a bet that if I could make her full-on scold me John would have to buy me dinner. It was unheard of for a demon to approach free will so quickly — in only twelve years. Both Yi Hao and Er Hao agreed it was because they’d been tamed by me; and I wasn’t just a bewildering Westerner, I was completely impossible to work for as well.
‘Hi, Ronnie,’ I said.
Ronnie placed his battered briefcase of fung shui equipment on the floor and saluted me. ‘Lady Emma. The Dark Lord is attempti
ng to help me recover what I have lost, and is showing me how to set seals.’
‘It would be wonderful if you could regain that skill,’ I said. ‘The Heavens need your ability at setting seals. The Dark Lord can’t be going around scribbling on paper all day.’
‘The seals on the Mountain are completely down and I can’t spare a whole day to put them back up again,’ John said.
Yi Hao squeaked softly behind me. Obviously she hadn’t known.
‘John, security,’ I said with exasperation.
He flashed me a grin. ‘I remember a young woman who hated it when secrets were kept from her.’
‘Not secrets this important. The last thing we need is the Demon King knowing that our seals have faded.’
‘Hopefully Ronnie will be able to reset them for us very soon.’
John crouched next to the briefcase and gestured for Ronnie to join him. Ronnie knelt on the floor, opened the case and stared at its contents.
I leaned on the desk to watch them.
John sat cross-legged on the floor and pointed at the items in the case. ‘There’s your compass. Remember we talked about it?’
Ronnie put his hand over the fung shui compass with its complicated series of characters around the edge that indicated the directions. He jerked his hand back, obviously intimidated.
‘Take it,’ John said.
Ronnie carefully slipped the compass out of its elastic tie-downs. He appeared confused as he moved the compass around in front of John.
‘Why does the needle always point away from you?’ he said.
‘Because I’m North,’ John said. ‘It will be useless anywhere near me. For now, let’s just set some seals on the door.’
‘I need papers for that,’ Ronnie said.
‘Very good,’ John said, pleased. ‘Do you know which ones?’
Ronnie took some slips of paper, twenty centimetres high and three wide, out of the case. ‘I think these are the right ones. But some have writing on them already.’ His face screwed up with concentration. ‘Is it important that they have writing on them?’